Ischemia is the most common cause of myocardial injury and coronary artery disease which causes ischemia is the most important cause of heart failure. Severe contraction or obstruction of the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart results in blockage of oxygen and nutrients necessary for cell survival, leading to cell death or severe functional disorder. In particular, because cardiac muscle cells have poor ability to regenerate and proliferate, ischemia-induced loss of the cardiomyocytes has a great influence on the cardiac function.
Accordingly, it is thought that heart diseases such as myocardial infarction can be prevented and treated by inhibiting the death of the cardiomyocytes. At present, the pharmacotherapy of myocardial infarction focuses on the prevention of ventricular change caused by myocardial infarction. For this, stent implantation or medication of antithrombotic drugs such as aspirin, Plavix, etc. or blood pressure drugs providing heart-protecting effects is employed. However, there has been no method for remarkably reviving heart muscles which died during the treatment of myocardial infarction.
The inventors of the present disclosure have found out that treatment of cardiomyocytes with (+)-syringaresinol leads to suppressed death of the cardiomyocytes.